i apologize for only reading 8 pages of this before writing this up but i do have to comment on the "exploit" label given to this strategy. first up if you have 150 artillery you are almost always destined to win the game anyway. now these war turns late in the game especially at the higher levels where everything is micromanaged can take over an hour per turn easily. now i can use the settler exploit to cut the offensive against say three rivals to "only" 25 turns or do it all in 40 turns without the exploit. either way ive conquered the world, the main difference is that i saved 15-30 hours of my time. so i played dishonorably. honor in a game at deity level is not worth that much time.
honor honor.
conquest.
which one ....
... conquest!
you dont even want to know what ive done in civ II to exploit ai weakness. but ill tell you anyway. giving the ai a very large starting advantage i was two turns away from the ai landing his spaceship when i launched my attack of ...
... 100 spies escorting a handful of landtroops. the ai had a huge sprawling empire. i nuked the city with the UN and then the capital, captured both, split the empire (civil war) nuked the new capital, another civil war, nuked a few more cities ended with 3 civil wars and the original civ conquered. i nuked one city of each of the other two civs remaining and took one city each. with the UN everyone asked for peace. my official reputation was "spotless" still. the enemy was shattered in one turn. that was with a 200 turn headstart on deity. i only even had espionage because i was allied with this power and he gave it to me - or maybe it was my freight ... something like that. i was an economic weakling when i declared war and the 100 spies were all i could afford.
now THAT is an exploit. but you know what? i dont care. i was very proud of that game.
if you want to talk about "honorable play" then let me suggest these "rules of honor":
1) never use railroads that are not explicitly inside your own culture boundary. its never done in the real world.
2) never use artillery at a range of two EVER. a nine hundred mile throw on an artillery shell is not a real life possibilty.
3) planes shall never run missions at a range greater than two squares. they simply did not have that range.
4) never settle on a continent other than your starting continent in the ancient age. it wasnt done.
5) never declare war on a power with a good reputation. it is "dishonorable".
6) never play a militaristic civilization. its "dishonorable".
7) never raze a city. never abandon a city. both are abominations in the real world.
8) never rush an improvement with population in communism or despotism. it's cruel.
9) do not play civ. war as entertainment is deranged.
10) never allow a city to starve to stave off a pre-build from completion. put yourself in the shoes of your population here and you will see my point. besides its an exploit.
11) do not play on the easy levels. you have an unfair advantage over the ai. this is a huge exploit and your victories are hollow.
12) do not use a communist form of government. its "not nice". do not use a fascist form of government. could you look your mother in the eye after doing this?
in short i dont buy the "the strategy is dishonorable" argument for giving guilt trips to all of us who use it.
Actually, you don't really need any luck once you get a handful of artillery.
Btw, since the army can also be rushed (as SirPleb just recently discovered) and military leader does seem to show up more often too (I had 5 of them in one turn and I wasn't even trying to farm them), Sid level doesn't seem so tough no more.
The hit percentage appears significantly higher (Like artillery really needed help!?)
[plasma] 
:rocket2: :ripper: :rocket: 
